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As a high school student who wants to be a physician assistant what are some good volunteer opporutunities?
I'm looking for volunteer opportunities that will help me become a physician assistant!
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Michelle’s Answer
Hello, Emily !
Being a Physician Assistant will be a wonderful future career for you. I am glad that you want to do volunteer work because it will provide a great experience for you for any work that you do along the way. The volunteer work you obtain as a high school student will not allow you to work on patients just yet. You will have the opportunity to be assigned patients once you are in the Physician Assistant program through your Standardized Patient exams as well as during your rotations. Any volunteer work that you do in high school will help you with communication skills and working in groups or independently. These are definitely skills that will help you in any career.
What you can do, if you haven't already, is become certified in CPR and First Aid. Check with your high school nurse and local hospitals to see when there are trainings for this and it is best done in person because you will get the chance to work with a mannequin which you wouldn't be able to do online. It'll be great to have certifications in these two basic skills.
As for volunteer work, wow, do you have a very wide and diverse choice living in New York City. You don't have to throw yourself into the fast-paced, hectic work as in one of the hospitals, you can do many other things that can give you a basic knowledge foundation. One of these places to volunteer is the Department of Health. You could probably have an unusually outstanding experience volunteering at New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital which could possibly offer you an opportunity to connect with patients but not as a physician just yet. I left the link to their website for you below.
How would you like to see first hand how your experience as a student Physician Assistant would be up close and personal ? You can do this by working (and getting paid for and the pay is good) as a Standardized Patient. These are people and actors that portray patients for P.A. students during their exams. You will be right there in a P.A. Program and see how it is run. Plus you'd get paid. And work according to your schedule. It will bring you into the college so you can explore the actual college first hand, too. I will tell you how to apply.
Obtain the websites and contact information for all the medical schools and Allied Health programs at colleges that offer a P.A. program in New York City. Go to each website and see if you can apply at their website or by e-mail and state that you are applying to be a Standardized Patient. When you are done with this lengthy task, then go to Indeed, register there and set notifications for Standardized Patient in New York City. You will be notified when openings come up and then you can apply. Do this same procedure at Linked In, too. This experience will be a bonus for you because you earn a big hourly wage and will have some medical schools listed on your resume for work history. You can work at more than one medical school while doing this. The only thing you need to be able to do is memorize a script which is more like information that the student will ask you when they examine you and nothing is intrusive with the exam. You wear your gym shorts, bra and a hospital gown that they provide. By working at a few schools, you may get an idea of where you might want to attend after undergraduate school. I left the link for you below for Touro which is a medical school for medical students. I worked at their upstate medical college doing this work. You will benefit if it's a P.A. program or a D.O. or Medical school.
I hope that this is helpful. I emphasize doing Standardized Patient work because when you learn the scripts, you will also learn medical conditions, medications and what they're for, and you will be shadowing how you will need to treat a patient once you are in your P.A. Program later on. Best wishes to you in all you do !
NY CITY DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH https://www.health.ny.gov/health_care/medicaid/redesign/ehr/registry/nycdohmh.htm
NEW YORK PRESBYTERIAN BROOKLYN METHODIST HOSPITAL https://www.nyp.org/brooklyn
STANDARDIZED PATIENT INFORMATION AT TOURO https://tcnycareers-touro.icims.com/jobs/6490/standardized-patient/job?mobile=false&width=1216&height=500&bga=true&needsRedirect=false&jan1offset=-300&jun1offset=-240
Being a Physician Assistant will be a wonderful future career for you. I am glad that you want to do volunteer work because it will provide a great experience for you for any work that you do along the way. The volunteer work you obtain as a high school student will not allow you to work on patients just yet. You will have the opportunity to be assigned patients once you are in the Physician Assistant program through your Standardized Patient exams as well as during your rotations. Any volunteer work that you do in high school will help you with communication skills and working in groups or independently. These are definitely skills that will help you in any career.
What you can do, if you haven't already, is become certified in CPR and First Aid. Check with your high school nurse and local hospitals to see when there are trainings for this and it is best done in person because you will get the chance to work with a mannequin which you wouldn't be able to do online. It'll be great to have certifications in these two basic skills.
As for volunteer work, wow, do you have a very wide and diverse choice living in New York City. You don't have to throw yourself into the fast-paced, hectic work as in one of the hospitals, you can do many other things that can give you a basic knowledge foundation. One of these places to volunteer is the Department of Health. You could probably have an unusually outstanding experience volunteering at New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital which could possibly offer you an opportunity to connect with patients but not as a physician just yet. I left the link to their website for you below.
How would you like to see first hand how your experience as a student Physician Assistant would be up close and personal ? You can do this by working (and getting paid for and the pay is good) as a Standardized Patient. These are people and actors that portray patients for P.A. students during their exams. You will be right there in a P.A. Program and see how it is run. Plus you'd get paid. And work according to your schedule. It will bring you into the college so you can explore the actual college first hand, too. I will tell you how to apply.
Obtain the websites and contact information for all the medical schools and Allied Health programs at colleges that offer a P.A. program in New York City. Go to each website and see if you can apply at their website or by e-mail and state that you are applying to be a Standardized Patient. When you are done with this lengthy task, then go to Indeed, register there and set notifications for Standardized Patient in New York City. You will be notified when openings come up and then you can apply. Do this same procedure at Linked In, too. This experience will be a bonus for you because you earn a big hourly wage and will have some medical schools listed on your resume for work history. You can work at more than one medical school while doing this. The only thing you need to be able to do is memorize a script which is more like information that the student will ask you when they examine you and nothing is intrusive with the exam. You wear your gym shorts, bra and a hospital gown that they provide. By working at a few schools, you may get an idea of where you might want to attend after undergraduate school. I left the link for you below for Touro which is a medical school for medical students. I worked at their upstate medical college doing this work. You will benefit if it's a P.A. program or a D.O. or Medical school.
I hope that this is helpful. I emphasize doing Standardized Patient work because when you learn the scripts, you will also learn medical conditions, medications and what they're for, and you will be shadowing how you will need to treat a patient once you are in your P.A. Program later on. Best wishes to you in all you do !
Michelle recommends the following next steps:
Updated
Karen’s Answer
I believe almost any volunteer opportunity will be valuable no matter what your future career. Being involved in a variety of activities will give you a broader perspective on how teams work together and more chances to network with others who may know of people in your chosen career. You can broaden your resume by listing all the various experiences you and skills gained.
With every good wish!
With every good wish!